West Pikeland OKs storm-water ordinance

Township engineering consultant Theodore Gacomis spoke about the ordinance that municipalities are working to adopt still, despite the Jan. 2 deadline. Chester County commissioners adopted the county-wide “Act 167 Storm Water Management Plan” in March 2013. The Department of Environmental Protection approved of the plan in August 2013.

Gacomis said the township had a similar storm-water management ordinance that was adopted in 2005. He said the most significant change to West Pikeland is the criteria of when a home-owner applies for a permit.

Under the new ordinance, residents can use up to 1,000 square feet of new impervious material without having to apply for a permit. He gave the example that when a homeowner applies for a permit to build a patio of 400 square feet, home-owners would use “simplified approach.” The modal ordinance provides an explanation of the approach within the ordinance.

Gacomis said any new development that includes more than 1,000 square feet of impervious surface would require the homeowner to follow the provided guidelines for storm-water management. He noted the process gives options to residents in a way that they would not incur high engineering costs for home projects.

He said that a resident who builds their own home, for example, would have to go through the same engineering process as the prior township storm-water management ordinance required.

For projects that are more than 5,000 square feet of land disturbance, homeowners are required to go through a permitting process with an engineer. He said that any requests that involves land disturbance beyond an acre, homeowners must get the approval of the county conservation district and the Department of Environmental Protection, as West Pikeland is in a “high quality watershed” area.

“This ordinance has all the criteria, it’s up-to-date, and it’s what the county has asked the townships to adopt,” Gacomis said.

According to county officials, 70 percent of Chester County municipalities have adopted the ordinance.

Township Manager Vince Visoskas previously said that the township is unable to make too many changes to the ordinance that DEP approved for county.

“So we don’t have a lot of say in what the new changes (are), we can’t make any revisions to the new changes because the county adopted the model ordinance that DEP approved,” Visoskas said at a prior board meeting.

When asked by the supervisors on Monday, Gacomis said the engineering firm, Edward Walsh and Associates Inc., had “fined-tuned” the provided county model ordinance to township needs. He said the ordinance makes it more clear for projects that homeowners and engineers work on, such as a patio addition.